Curriculum as Experience

Consider the curriculum you are examining and determine, to the best of your ability, the nature of experiences students have when engaged in the curriculum. For some curricular materials, the experiences may be explicitly described. For others, you will have to infer based upon the information they give. Nevertheless, you need to try to characterize the nature of experiences for your curriculum and consider the following:

· To what degree does the curriculum support the general principles for selecting experiences outlined by Tyler?

· In reference to Tyler’s work addressing experiences and objectives, to what degree do the curriculum experiences support meaningful objectives?

· Based upon Dewey’s work and the application of that work in the lab school, to what degree are the experiences coherent, integrated, meaningful, and authentic?

· In general, to what degree are the experiences educative?

· To what degree do the experiences lead to growth – both for the individual and for society?

What are the implications of your assessment of the curriculum experiences based on the points mentioned above?